Family Spotlight:
Greg and Lucio
Greg Baranoski, a freelance display artist and event décor designer, and Lucio Gama, a biologist at Johns Hopkins University, were introduced by a mutual friend more than ten years ago; the two have been together ever since. The couple resides in Bolton Hill, where they have lived together since July 1995 with Edgar, their Jack Russell Terrier.
Lucio, 38, was born in Itajuba, Brazil, a small mountain town approximately 4 hours from both Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. He came to America in 1994 and was fortunate to maintain a consistent work permit since his arrival. Without this work permit, Lucio would have been hard-pressed to find a way to remain in this country, despite his committed relationship with Greg.
“We have been working within the immigration process that Lucio has been going for nearly ten years,” said Greg, “and we do feel that we have been totally victimized by the fact that if Lucio were a woman, this process would have been over years and years ago.
Gay, lesbian and bisexual U.S.citizens cannot petition for their same-sex partners to immigrate to this country, forcing thousands of couples to live apart or to migrate to one of the 15 countries with more hospitable immigration laws. Approximately 75 percent of the 1 million green cards or immigrant visas issued each year go to family members of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. According to the U.S. immigration law, Greg and Lucio are not considered family, despite the length and commitment of their relationship.
“In the first several years we were together, many of our friends advised Lucio to get legally married to a woman to acquire resident status so that we could be together,” Greg said. “Their thought was that it would make the process much easier and much faster. Lucio steadfastly refused to consider this option and we have been going by the book in the immigration process every step of the way, being careful not to break any immigration law or even the most obscure visa requirement.”
“If we could marry,” Lucio said, “we would have done so already, and this would be long over for us. This has been very time consuming and expensive.”
Lucio's immigration process led to a period of more than 5 months when he had to stop working because of the snails-pace with which the bureaucracy moved in approving one of several steps in the immigration process. This period of uncertainty for Greg and Lucio, and the period of Lucio being out of work, was very stressful on their relationship.
None of this stress would have been necessary if we had been able to get married,” Lucio said.
“Lucio's immigration hurdles aren't the only ones we feel we have had to jump in order to try and level the playing field with any married heterosexual couple,” Greg added. “From our medical powers-of-attorney to our very specific last will and testaments, we know we must be very specifically prepared when it comes to matters that no married couple need worry about in times of emergency or death.”
The couple is keeping their fingers crossed that they will be able to go to Provincetown, Massachusetts to get married on their 10th anniversary. “It won’t be recognized by the state of Maryland, or the federal government, and it won’t make the immigration process any easier,” said Greg, “but it will mean the world to us, and afford recognition somewhere in this country of our commitment to each other.”
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